CENTER VALLEY, Pa., August 31, 2010 – Olympus today announces two new lenses to its Micro Four Thirds lens family: the M.ZUIKO® DIGITAL ED 75-300 MM F4.8-6.7 and M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150MM F4.0-5.6. Both lenses feature a high-speed, silent autofocus during still shooting and high definition (HD) movie capture. They are the ultimate lenses for zooming in on sporting events, beautiful wildlife and faces from a distance, and because they make barely a whisper when focusing, they won’t call attention to photographer or add unwanted noise to movie recordings. Look what you can do.

Strong ZoomsThe M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 with a 35 mm equivalent of 150-600mm is the world’s smallest and lightest 600mm super telephoto lens. Weighing merely 15.17 ounces and measuring 2.76 by 4.57 inches, this lightweight lens delivers excellent portability and outstanding image quality when paired with the award-winning Olympus PEN® cameras. Previous lenses offering 600mm or more have been too large and heavy for most users to enjoy super telephoto shooting. This lens is smaller and lighter than the comparable ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 70-300mm f4.8-6.7.

Silent OperationThe M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7’s rear focusing mechanism is comprised of a single-element unit, to enable remarkably fast and nearly silent HD movie recordings with sound. The M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 has two lens elements in the rear focusing mechanism. The manual focusing mechanism is designed to deliver quiet and precise auto focus operation, for an affordable, high quality means to capture your life in still images or HD videos.

The new lenses are made with ED (extra-low dispersion) glass to maximize the performance of the Micro Four Thirds System. The Micro Four Thirds System standard meets the telecentric requirements of dedicated digital design. Light rays strike the imaging element nearly head-on for optimum edge-to-edge image reproduction. It also enables much more compact design than the Four Thirds System standard (or other interchangeable lens systems) because it reduces the outer diameter of the lens mount by 6mm, and the distance from the lens mount to the sensor (the flange back distance) by approximately half. As a result, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL Micro Four Thirds System lenses offer uncompromising professional quality for capturing both still images and HD videos, and the lenses are exceptionally compact to make capturing life more fun.

The Micro Four Thirds System’s design, compact size, low weight and amazing image quality with the new lenses extend the photographic potential of the system by adding more options. The new lenses are compatible with all Micro Four Thirds System Olympus PEN cameras, and all other current and future cameras that comply with the Micro Four Thirds System standard. When mounted on an Olympus PEN camera, the lenses are stabilized thanks to the camera’s in-body Image Stabilization system and offer effective shake compensation at all focal lengths.

AVAILABILITYThe M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 will be available in December 2010, while the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 will be available in November 2010. Both lenses will be available in black and silver.

The 75-300mm may not have the brightest aperture in the world at 300mm but for the size and price one can forgive a lot. Pop it onto a PEN E-P2 with it's built in stabilisation and you're all set for some serious telephoto action!

I'll be interested to read some reviews on the 70-300mm. The regular 4:3 70-300 is less than half the price of this m4:3. I wonder how the micro format copes with the potential slow AF and low light focusing issues?

On the 70-300, while they managed to keep the diameter small, helped by the slow aperture, it seems the length is still significant. The price is a bit much though from a photography perspective, but did they do a GH1 kit lens on it? I think it does say optimised for video somewhere in the press release, which would be the only way they could possibly justify the cost i.e. silent focus and aperture, although that does require effective AF during video...

Photographically that will be challenging. You have a slow aperture, and need fast shutter for motion blur prevention, and the smaller sensor doesn't help with the higher ISOs. If memory serves me they did the "600mm marketing trick" on the 4/3 version too. It isn't really that different from a 300mm lens on APS-C which I think is the value comparison.

It isn't really that different from a 300mm lens on APS-C which I think is the value comparison

Hmm, I know (I think) where you're coming from but to take the most closely matched lens price wise in the Canon line-up after factoring in the likely sensor pixel density, namely the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, we have dimensions of 76.5mm x 142.8mm (diameter and length) and a weight of 630gm, not to mention the size and weight of the camera body. But for the M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm we have 70mm x 116mm and 430gm so the Zuiko is significantly shorter and a lot lighter.

It will be interesting to see the reviews when this lens is actually available but unless it's a dud (unlikely) I can only look on enviously. My equivalent lens for my EOS 5D Mark II would be the Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM with dimensions of 94.7mm x 252 mm and a colossal weight of 1910gm.

Here are the side by side images and even here the Zuiko is displayed about 20% too big compared to the Sigma.

43rumors have posted a link to samples and MTF charts from Olympus now.

Now... there's something I haven't considered before. First I just simply compared the MTF charts for the Oly 75-300 to the Canon 70-300 IS USM, and the Canon appeared "better". Even the DO appeared "better". Then I noticed Oly specify at 20 and 60 lines/mm, whereas Canon use 10 and 30. Are Olympus testing at 2x the frequency? That could make sense in that the sensor is a nominal crop factor of 2x compared to full frame, if that is the reference they're picking. So would that be a better indication of per-area sharpness? Too much for me to think about right now...

Putting that aside, there are samples. Now it doesn't give details on the shots, but I'd say there's a definite lack of pixel peeping sharpness.